Ohio State guard Aaron Craft (4) lays the ball in against Purdue at Mackey Arena on Tuesday afternoon. Ohio State the Boilermakers 78-69.

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| By Rob McCurdy
CentralOhio.com

If the season is broken into three phases, Ohio State is embarking on the toughest one.

"Winning a conference championship is the hardest thing to do in college basketball," OSU basketball coach Thad Matta said. "There's not a lot of secrets.

"As the season wears on, the familiarity of tendencies with teams and players, all those things come out. You see your opponents so much more now because you're watching to get ready for one team and you're thinking, 'OK, we're going to play those guys down the road here,' and you have to keep an eye on them as well." ...